The leader of the Los Angeles Unified School District will meet Monday night with frustrated and worried parents after a week in which two Miramonte Elementary School teachers were charged with lewds acts… More: Superintendent to Meet With Miramonte Parents

Last week’s Internet blackout protesting SOPA and PIPA had the world talking, and the almighty Twitterverse was undoubtedly buzzing about the dark day. As a way to gauge the Twitter community’s reaction, two technologists developed a visual representation of the speed of which tweets mentioned the brief absence of some of the web’s biggest sites. more › See the rest here: Video: How Twitterverse Reacted To SOPA/PIPA Internet Blackout

Former Beverly Hills Unified School District Superintendent Jeffrey Hubbard was convicted Monday of two felony misappropriation of public funds charges, but acquitted on a third charge. Prosecutors in the case alleged that Hubbard, 54, approved $20,000 in stipends and a $500 car allowance raise for former BHUSD facilities director Karen Christiansen without approval from the school board. He also had allegedly authorized a pay increase for former district employee Nora Roque without school board consent. Stay tuned to Patch for more on this developing story . This story was compiled with information from City News Service. Be sure to follow Beverly Hills Patch on Twitter and “Like” us on Facebook . More here: Ex-BHUSD Superintendent Found Guilty of Two Misappropriation of Public Funds Charges

Ron Paul street art was spotted last week in Beverly Hills. Read about that and more in the top stories from Jan. 1-7. 1. A pop-art portrait of GOP presidential candidate Ron Paul was affixed to a city-owned sculpture. City staffers removed it Tuesday. 2. The person allegedly responsible for a string of arsons in nearby communities was identified as Harry Burkhart , a 24-year-old German national living in Hollywood. 3. The Blockbuster store on South Robertson Boulevard is closing for good at the end of January. 4. Beverly Hills police arrested the man allegedly responsible for the robbery of a North Beverly Drive bank . 5. Former Beverly Hills Unified School District facilities director Karen Christiansen was sentenced to four years and four months in prison after being found guilty on four felony conflict of interest charges. Also, a reader sent in a photo of a Santa Monica Boulevard motorcycle crash . Be sure to follow Beverly Hills Patch on Twitter and “Like” us on Facebook . Read more here: Week in Review: Ron Paul Art, Bank Robbery Arrest and Karen Christiansen Sentencing

Even though contract negotiations between the United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) union and the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) haven’t even been scheduled yet, Superintendent John Deasy’s supporters are gearing up for a long fight. On Thursday, the Los Angeles Fund for Public Education sent out an email action alert urging supporters to call and email individual members of the Los Angeles School board, as well as UTLA president Warren Fletcher, and tell them to support Superintendent Deasy’s proposed contract changes. He explained a few of them in a Los Angeles Times op-ed last July: “Mutual consent in hiring” : schools should do their own staff hiring, and not be obligated to hire displaced teachers. “A robust and meaningful evaluation system” : teachers should undergo a standardized evaluation system across the district that factors in student achievement. “A better process for granting tenure” : the district should set the bar for tenure higher than the current two year standard, which is mandated by state law. After tenure is granted, there should be a “significant salary increase.” ” Compensation reform “: high-performing teachers and administers should be rewarded with annual raises, and additional bonuses should be given to educators who achieve in underperforming schools. There should be no more raises for additional degrees earned or length of career. “No cap or limits on teacher-led reforms and innovations” : all schools and teachers should have the right to design and implement their own curriculums on their own campuses. Teacher contract reforms similar to Deasy’s proposal, including a new evaluation system and pay increases according to teacher performance, were implemented in the Washington D.C. school district under the now-deposed Chancellor Michelle Rhee in 2010. In a recent analysis published this week that examined Rhee’s impact on D.C. schools, the Washington Post found that despite her lightning-quick speed, hundreds of layoffs, and the alienation of some teachers and parents, Rhee’s impact is could end up being ultimately positive: Today, teachers are better paid and evaluated more closely. A landmark labor contract gives school principals more control over who is in classrooms. Basic central functions including purchasing, textbook delivery and food service, although not perfect, are viewed as much improved. Private foundations, enthused by Rheeâs emphasis on teacher quality and willingness to take on a politically potent union, poured millions of dollars into the public schools. The UTLA have demands that are in direct opposition to some of Deasy’s proposals. They include the immediate re-instatement of 662 laid-off teachers and education staffers, which could contradict Deasy’s proposal that school have more hiring autonomy. But the UTLA could face an uphill battle in the upcoming contract negotiations, especially considering that leadership has remained mum on alternatives to Deasy’s new contract items. After an interview with UTLA president Warren Fletcher, Claremont Graduate University professor Charles Taylor Kerchner (Kerchner has written two books on education unions) concluded this in his blog for the Huffington Post : The problem is that UTLA has been largely mute about alternatives to the current system, which virtually everyone, including Fletcher, agrees doesn’t work. But UTLA’s lack of a strong viable alternative and opposition to any use of student test score data for evaluation, puts it on the defensive. Fletcher says internal work on developing an “intellectually honest and durable” system is underway, but that it takes time. But time is short because both the school administration and the newly attentive public have approached this round of bargaining with a righteous urgency. But it isn’t all conflict with the LAUSD and UTLA — on Friday, Deasy, Fletcher and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa co-authored a blog for the Huffington Post urging congress to pass the Teachers and First Responders Back to Work Bill — something that would pour $30 billion into schools nationwide . From their blog : Here is another simple idea that our children understand but that we adults seem to have lost sight of: fair is fair. It is simply unfair to send some children to good quality private schools for $25,000 or more and then maintain that $7,000 — California’s average per-pupil spending — is anywhere close to adequate to educate the rest. In Los Angeles, 84% of our students are Black or Latino and 76% qualify for free or reduced lunches. They deserve the same educational opportunities as their peers. The educational futures of these children must not be determined by their economic status or zip code. As contract negotiations loom, both the LAUSD and the UTLA would do well to focus on the common goal that was outlined in their collaborative piece: an excellent education for all of Los Angeles’ children, regardless of race or socioeconomic status. Read the original: LAUSD vs. UTLA: District & Teachers Gearing Up For Contract Negotiation

Although today is the day Occupy LAUSD heads to the Los Angeles Unified School District’s headquarters to being their “occupation,” there have been many people affiliated with the district participating in the original Occupy L.A . encampment and protests. One such participant, substitute teacher Patricia McAllister, has come under fire for remarks captured during a video interview from the City Hall Occupy L.A. site. more › Original post: LAUSD Condemns Sub Who Called out Banking’s ‘Zionist Jews’ During Interview at Occupy L.A.

After a yearlong lobbying campaign by Beverly Hills Unified School District Board of Education President Lisa Korbatov, the board voted Tuesday to hire two library media teachers to work at the city’s four K-8 schools. “I am really excited at the thought that our children will see a librarian at school,” Korbatov said after the 4-0 vote. Board member Jake Manaster was not at the meeting because of a business trip. There have not been library media teachers at Beverly Vista, El Rodeo, Hawthorne or Horace Mann schools since 2008, when the board voted to eliminate the jobs to save funds. Beverly Hills High School was able to keep its librarian. “That vote [in 2008] was a mistake and this is an opportunity to rectify that mistake,” Vice President Brian Goldberg said before the vote. “If we’re going to move the district from good to great to the best, we need to provide qualified library media and technology teachers to engage our students.” Each library teacher will cost approximately $100,000 in salary and benefits, BHUSD Assistant Superintendent for Human Resources Dawnalyn Murakawa-Leopard told the board. Since the positions were not included in the current fiscal year budget, funding for the jobs will come from unrestricted district reserves. The BHUSD recently announced it had accumulated a cash reserve of more than 10 percent of its yearly budget. It is yet to be determined how the two librarians will divide their time among the four schools, although Korbatov said she is confident the BHUSD will come up with a plan by the time the staff members are hired. She noted that there are probably many suitable job candidates available since the Los Angeles Unified School District recently eliminated most school librarian positions. According to the job description posted on the BHUSD website, the new librarians will provide “library and media services to elementary and middle school students and teachers.” Such services include: The development of student literacy through the library media program Providing instruction in the skills needed to use instructional materials, research and reference tools effectively The introduction of appropriate literature for students The integration of instructional materials Curriculum resource selection and ordering Overseeing the library’s circulation, utilization, organization and maintenance In an interview with Patch in December when she took over the board presidency, Korbatov said that one of her top priorities would be restoring the library media positions at the K-8 schools. Be sure to follow Beverly Hills Patch on Twitter and “Like” us on Facebook . Read this article: Library Media Teachers Returning to K-8 Schools

The Anaheim Union High School District has stopped an incentive program designed to motivate students to improve state test scores by having high scoring students carry different colored binders and stand in different lunch lines than lower scoring students. Continue reading here: Anaheim Schools Drop Incentive Plan